Monday, April 21, 2008

Mickey Kaus on Obama's "Snobbery"

Mickey Kaus of Slate writes:

Help! I'm A Snob Like Obama!
Greg Mitchell ridicules Bill Kristol for insinuating that Barack Obama was a Marxist for saying that residents of economically depressed small towns "cling to guns or religion ... as a way to explain their [economic] frustrations." But of course it was a Marxist thing to say, wasn't it? If Democrats had delivered on the economy, Obama suggests, all those GOP cultural "wedge" issues would lose traction. This idea--that the economy trumps culture--isn't new. It's "materialism." The economic "base," Marxists would argue, determines the cultural "superstructure." If the economy changes (i.e. if small town Pennsylvanians get well-paying jobs) then the superstructure will change (Pennsylvanians will feel less intensely about their religion).

Read it all here

3 comments:

#Debi said...

Well, religion is the opiate of the masses, after all... ;)

#Debi said...

Oh, and guns. Guns are also the opiate of the masses, apparently...

Ed said...

We're very crude in Pennsylvania. Some of us even believe that Bambi tastes good...